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P. Dje\u0301li Clark Credit: c\/o Tombolo Books<\/p>\nP. Dje\u0301li Clark Credit: c\/o Tombolo Books<\/p>\n
In America, demons wear white hoods.<\/p>\n
Black speculative fiction author P. Dj\u00e9li Clark<\/a>\u2019s critically acclaimed novella \u201cRing Shout\u201d begins after the film \u201cBirth of a Nation\u201d has cast a spell across the United States, summoning demons empowered by the darkest thoughts of white folks. Black resistance fighters draw from the magical power of the Ring Shout tradition to hunt down and destroy these Ku Klux monsters before they can end the world.<\/p>\n Published in 2020, \u201cRing Shout\u201d won that year\u2019s Nebula Award, as well as the Locus and British Fantasy Awards in 2021 for Best Novella. A historian himself, Clark was inspired by his own research into ex-slave narratives, the Ring Shout practice, and Gullah\/Geechee culture to create this exultant, enthralling, prophetic work.<\/p>\n RSVPs are requested to celebrate the paperback release of \u201cRing Shout\u201d with author P. Dj\u00e9li Clark at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Oct. 21.<\/a><\/p>\n Ahead of the event, University of South Florida Professor Donnie Ibn Malik Ali McClendon, or \u201cProfessor Mac\u201d shared a few words on his own research into the African American Ring Shout tradition, and his perspective on the depiction of this real-world spiritual practice in Clark\u2019s novella.<\/p>\n Look below to read Professor Mac\u2019s essay and check out some of the best book and literary events happening in Tampa Bay between Oct. 16-31. For more (free!) events, check out your local library at hcplc.org\/events<\/a>.<\/p>\n The shout was not born in safety; it was forged in the brutal crucible of transatlantic captivity, yet it emerged as a sonic insurgency cloaked in sacred ritual. Where white supremacist epistemologies perceived chaos, the enslaved constructed coherence. Every spiraling motion, every syncopated stomp in the ring, becomes a rebuke of empire\u2019s logic and an invocation of an alternative cosmology. One rooted not in domination, but in sacred reciprocity. As a \u201ckinetic theology,\u201d the shout not only expresses resistance, it enacts it. It becomes a ritual choreography through which American African bodies rewrite the terms of reality, moving counterclockwise against the dominant flow of time and narrative, turning trauma into memory and memory into power.<\/p>\n Through this embodied cosmology, the shout constructs a \u201cThirdSpace of spirit possession\u201d. A liminal zone where hegemonic meaning unravels, and alternative ontologies emerge. This is not simply metaphorical; it is spiritual infrastructure. In the shout\u2019s ecstatic convergence language gives way to vibration, and vibration to transformation. The shout does not convince the intellect; it ruptures it. It bypasses colonial logic entirely, embedding itself in the nervous system, the breath, the blood. In this way, it shields its practitioners from the epistemic violence of colonialism. Not by arguing with it, but by vibrating at a frequency it cannot interpret or contain.<\/p>\n The power of the Ring Shout lies, too, in its pedagogy. Not a pedagogy of abstraction or theory, but a visceral and recursive transmission of knowledge through rhythm, through intergenerational movement. This \u201csacred curriculum\u201d defies the Western academy\u2019s fetish for textuality, insisting instead that truth is something felt, something danced, something shouted into being. The elders, like Lawrence McKiver of the McIntosh County Shouters in historical fact or Maryse\u2019s guides in speculative fiction, do not merely teach about resistance; they embody it. The shout encodes ancestral wisdom in motion, allowing each generation to re-enter the circuit, to remember themselves forward.<\/p>\n Crucially, this tradition refuses isolation. It resonates across diasporic soundscapes. From the thunder of Bomba drums in Puerto Rico to the haunting tones of Vodun chants in Benin. These sonic technologies form a constellation of Black survivance, articulating what empire cannot erase, the unbroken continuity of diasporic memory. They are not merely expressions of cultural pride, they are tactical resistances, each rhythm a strategy, each harmony a haven.<\/p>\n In Ring Shout, then, Maryse does not wield magic as fantasy. She channels a historical technology designed not only to survive oppression, but to undo it from within. The shout\u2019s ambiguity, its refusal to be pinned down as dance or doctrine, resistance or reverence, is its strength. It evades commodification, resists translation, and denies assimilation. It remains illegible to empire precisely because it is sung in a language that both predates conquest and outlives it.<\/p>\n Thus, the Ring Shout is not merely armor, it is ancestral software encoded in the bones, designed to update itself in each new era of struggle. It teaches us that liberation is not only something we fight for, but something we remember through breath, through rhythm, through sacred convergence. In a world threatened by demonic systems masquerading as order, the shout does not merely protect, it reprograms. It remakes the world in the image of the ancestors\u2019 dream.<\/p>\n In this light, the most potent resistance is not the blade or the bullet, but the breath-bound refusal to forget who we are. The shout teaches us, as Maryse learns, that true power lies in the sound that reverberates through generations, unbroken, undestroyed, ever-alive and always circling.<\/p>\n \u2018Mockingbird Court\u2019: An Evening With author duo Juneau Black Thursday, Oct. 16. 7 p.m.-8 p.m. RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Tombolo Queer Comic Book Club reads \u2018Carmilla\u2019 by Amy Chu & Soo Lee Saturday, Oct. 18. 12 p.m.- 1 p.m. Allendale Church (special location), St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Steamy Lit Reading Rainbow Book Club reads \u2018The Haunting of William Thorn\u2019 by Ben Alderson Saturday, Oct. 18. 6 p.m.- 7 p.m. RSVP. Steamy Lit, Tampa<\/p>\n Bookends Pop-Up Shop at Deviant Libation Book Exchange Sunday, Oct. 19. 2 p.m.- 5 p.m. Deviant Libation, Tampa<\/p>\n \u2018Like A Wave We Break\u2019: An Evening With Jane Marie Chen Sunday, Oct. 19. 3:30 p.m.- 5 p.m. $7. Oxford Exchange, Tampa<\/p>\n Steamy Lit Trope Book Club reads \u2018But Not Too Bold\u2019 by Hache Pueyo Sunday, Oct. 19. 4 p.m.- 5 p.m. RSVP. Steamy Lit, Tampa<\/p>\n The Library Book Club reads \u2018The Satisfaction Cafe\u2019 by Kathy Wang Tuesday, Oct. 21. 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. The Library, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n \u2018Ring Shout\u2019: An Evening With P. Dj\u00e9li Clark Tuesday, Oct. 21. 7 p.m.-8 p.m. RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Bookends Pop-Up Bookshop & Game Night with Necronomicon & Mystical Millennial Wednesday, Oct. 22. 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Gasparilla Distillery, Tampa<\/p>\n Tombolo Sci-Fi Book Club reads \u2018Parable of the Sower\u2019 by Octavia Butler Wednesday, Oct. 22. 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Bonfire Poems: Themed Poetry Open Mic with Featured Poets Wednesday, Oct. 22. 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Murders, Monsters, Mysteries! A Haunted Event with Ginny Myers Sain Thursday, Oct. 23. 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. JC Newman Cigar Company, Tampa<\/p>\n \u2018Other People\u2019s Mothers\u2019: An Evening With Julie Marie Wade Thursday, Oct. 23. 7 p.m.-8 p.m. RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Tombolo Fantasy Book Club reads \u2018Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil\u2019 by Oliver Darkshire Saturday, Oct. 25. 9 a.m.-10 a.m. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n The Moth leads 2-Day Storytelling Workshop at Wild Space Saturday, Oct. 25-Sunday, Oct. 26. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wild Space Gallery, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Steamy Lit Halloween Pop-Up at Mezzo Market Saturday, Oct. 25. 12 p.m. Baum Avenue, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n \u2018The English Masterpiece\u2019: An Evening With Katherine Reay Saturday, Oct. 25. 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m. $7. Oxford Exchange, Tampa<\/p>\n Tombolo Romance Book Club reads \u2018Fan Service\u2019 by Rosie Danan Sunday, Oct. 26. 9 a.m.-10 a.m. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Lady Leaders + Readers Book Club reads \u2018Invisible Women\u2019 by Caroline Criado Perez Sunday, Oct. 26. 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Tampa Girls Book Club reads \u2018Mexican Gothic\u2019 by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Sunday, Oct. 26. 1 p.m. COHatch West Tampa<\/p>\n Steamy Lit Romance Book Club reads \u2018Love at First Fright\u2019 by Nadia El-Fassi Sunday, Oct. 26. 4 p.m.-5 p.m. RSVP. Steamy Lit, Tampa<\/p>\n Tampa History Center\u2019s Black History Book Club reads \u201cMalcolm X: The Last Speeches\u201d Tuesday, Oct. 28. 5 p.m.-6:45 p.m. Tampa Black History Museum, Tampa<\/p>\n The Library Book Club reads \u2018Culpability\u2019 by Bruce Holsinger Wednesday, Oct. 29. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. The Library, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n \u2018The Dead Dad Diaries\u2019: An Evening With Erin Slaughter Wednesday, Oct. 29. 7 p.m.-8 p.m. RSVP. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Book + Bottle Fiction Book Club reads \u2018Mayra\u2019 by Nicky Gonzalez Thursday, Oct. 30. 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Book + Bottle, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n Tombolo Book Club reads \u2018Will There Ever Be Another You\u2019 by Patricia Lockwood Thursday, Oct. 30. 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg<\/p>\n \u2018Happy Go Lucky\u2019: An Evening With David Sedaris Thursday, Oct. 30. 7:30 p.m. $88. Ferguson Hall at David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa<\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t